I'm planning on changing my bass pickups, going from passive to active!

GuyMcee

GuyMcee

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Dec 5, 2011
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#1
I primarily play on a Warwick rockbass corvette 5 string, with music-man style pickups and I really don't dig the sound I'm getting out of them, especially the bridge pickup. The sound is super dry and dead, and not musical in any way, shape, or form.

I'm thinking about adding some EMG's with a preamp, to liven up the tone. Thoughts? Recommendations of other pickup manufacturers?
 
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#5
I don't like the tone from EMG MM style pickups they sound sterile to me. I have EMG pickups in 4 other basses so I do like what they make just not the MM. Personally I like passive Seymour Duncan / Delano / Bartolini for MM pickups. Then its just a matter of picking the active preamp you want to go with it. Preamp choice makes all the difference, Darkglass preamp sounds ungodly amazing with MM pickups to me. Aguilar and John East come to mind as well. It really comes down to what do you want to be able to dial in, more vintage vibe, more aggressive metal tones or both and everything in between.
 
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#8
line6man said:
Chaining gain stages can decrease headroom, and raise the noisefloor. Plus, you can't run an active/passive switch that will work as a failsafe if your battery dies.
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Very true...but EMGs sound killer attached to preamps. I'll take my chances on the battery dying thing. It hasn't happen to me in over 36 years. Doesn't mean it won't happen....
 
#9
Active EMGs are designed to work with their preamp, and EMG suggests 18v if more headroom is desired. Haven't heard any complaints about the noisefloor there.
There won't be the (not always desired) passive pickup interaction with buffered pickups either.

As noted above, if you're adding a preamp, do that first, before swapping pickups, because it may be a great combo that way.
 
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#13
Im all for adding active pres. There are a few problems you will run into though. Like finding space for the battery and new electronics. If your control cavity is small you might have problems. I added an active pre in my mim jazz and had no room left for a battery. I ended up making the route bigger connecting the neck pickup to to the pots. It turned out great...
 
#14
Def. try a preamp with your current pickups before changing pickups. I got a late 90's Warwick Streamer STD, the passive MEC pickups, it sounded kinda bland. I put in an Aguilar OPB-2 (bass,treble only, I think, don't play it now). That preamp completely brought the sound to life, gave it the Warwick woody growl I thought it was suppose to have.
MJ
 
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#15
spaz21387 said:
Im all for adding active pres. There are a few problems you will run into though. Like finding space for the battery and new electronics. If your control cavity is small you might have problems. I added an active pre in my mim jazz and had no room left for a battery. I ended up making the route bigger connecting the neck pickup to to the pots. It turned out great...
Click to expand...

I looked around at the bass and stuff, the cavity for electronics has TONS of extra space, I'm actually surprised they made it so large.
 
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#16
Hi,
Just installed a Mike Pope preamp into a modulus Q5 with EMG X series pickups. Was running the EMGs with no pre.. What a difference the Pope pre made. Has Master volume, passive tone (used as a tone rolloff on the emgs) blend. bass/treble stacked, and Hi/low mid stacked. Sounds like a hammer lol!!

Bill
 
#17
sound is super dry and dead
Click to expand...

If you don't mind not having an active-passive switch, get your tech to wire up the preamp with the volume (a 10-25k pot) on the output. Most preamp diagrams will have the volume on the input to accomodate an active-passive switch. And maybe also run an unearthed blend pot. These two things will brighten the tone of the pickups by quite a way, compared to standard wiring.

music-man style pickups
Click to expand...

Also check to see if the pickups are wired in series or parallel mode. The classic bright stingray pickup sound is with the coils in parallel. If yours are in series, consider having them rewired or having series-parallel switches added.
 
#18
RobbieK said:
If you don't mind not having an active-passive switch, get your tech to wire up the preamp with the volume (a 10-25k pot) on the output. Most preamp diagrams will have the volume on the input to accomodate an active-passive switch. And maybe also run an unearthed blend pot. These two things will brighten the tone of the pickups by quite a way, compared to standard wiring.
Click to expand...

Interesting- I see how keeping as many pots as possible after the preamp/buffer can help (especially using passive pickups). Maybe why Bartolini usually does it that way. Thanks.
 
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